Casual dinner: Ivins!

Located at 19/21 Binjai Park Bukit Timah, this place proved that IT'S ALL IN THE SAUCE!

For lack of a better place for dinner one night, we headed over to Ivins, a Peranakan place we had been to a few times in the past. Business is brisk here with tables moving in and out fairly quickly. Reservations are definitely recommended before coming. (64683060). Portions here are fairly small per order in the range of 4-6.90 each (generally). Water is served and rice is 80cents/bowl and $1/bowl for coconut rice.

Menu:
Meatball Soup

A really good starter to the meal, the soup has a meaty flavour to it making it really comforting. Ignorant me only knows this as Rou wan tang (meatball soup). I assume it's pork or chicken.

Menu:
Fish & Chips

Besides peranakan fare, they also serve up a couple of western dishes on their menu. This is one of them. At $5.90 this was roughly the price of one dish so i decided to try. I would stave off their Fish&Chips from now on. The fries were soggy and the breaded skin came right off the fish which was a bummer. Fairly greasy too. The fish itself had a consistency of chicken and O was amazed that it was actually fish. No go.

Menu:
Stewed Pork in Peanut Sauce

I really enjoyed this. While the pork wasn't all that tender, the savory sauce with a hint of peanuts really did it for me. IT'S ALL IN THE SAUCE!

Menu:
Sotong with squid ink sauce.

The first two time we had this on earlier visits it was really good, done just right and the sweet and slightly spicy sauce making the sotong a real treat. IT'S ALL IN THE SAUCE!
On this visit the entire dish had a somewhat limp feel to it with no kick. Some inconsistency here.

Menu:
Beef Rendang

It may not look like much but pleasant surprises are always a good thing aren't they? While it isn't the most tender stewed beef i've ever had (yes it sadly applies to most of the meats i've tried here), all i can say is ... IT'S ALL IN THE SAUCE! The rendangs here are all must try. I would say their 'signboard' dish, even if they themselves do not.

Menu:
Curry Vegetables

Came hot but hard and seemingly undercooked. Sent it back for further work done (which i hope did not include spitting into it... joking). Failed to wow, more comfort than anything and not really a good job at that. Mom also moaned the lack of ingredients in this. Still not soft enough even after it came back a 2nd time but better than the 1st.

Menu:
Chicken Rendang

If you come here for only one dish, make this it. Finally a dish here THAT'S NOT ALL ABOUT THE SAUCE. Tender chicken soaked in the wonderful chicken rendang gravy that's good enough to eat on its on, everyone around the table had nothing but praise for this. Must try.

Menu:
Bubor Hitam, Chendol and Ice Jelly with lime and palm seeds

A sweet ending to the meal. These go for $1.20 per bowl and for the bubor hitam, there was even loads of soft yummy beans. I highly recommend that. The ice jelly was comforting but average. The chendol i did not try. Not a c-man. The first two visits were a lot better and I hope they get their inconsistency issues sorted out.

Bukit timah brinjal park